Luxury brands such as the Chanels and Diors of our world have been notorious for their reluctance to progress online. The rise of mobile and e-commerce is especially relevant in the fashion industry, yet some fashion brands are slow to keep up and could do with progressing faster in the mobile department.

However change is coming: Chanel recently launched its beauty product e-shop and Fendi has announced that it will launch an e-commerce platform in March this year. Small luxury brands are catching up too, but with consumers spending more and more time online, they will need to create a fluid shopping experience to successfully leverage e-commerce.

App mania

Social networks and apps are not to be neglected in the rise of e-commerce, as shoppers tend to seek out user-generated online content before making a purchase. Instagram, fashion and lifestyle blogs, and even new emerging apps like Depop, a social buying and selling platform, are used along the customer journey ahead of completing a purchase.

There is a major expectation for an easy journey, from an app or website to having the product in hand

Daniela Cecilio

These are all platforms which have the addiction factor and keep users wanting to come back for more. Fashion brands should therefore focus their attention on app functionalities, as great customer service on its own doesn’t retain customers anymore.

At a basic level, there is a major expectation for an easy journey, from an app or website to having the product in hand. Our app ASAP54 recently rolled out an Instagram integration feature, meaning that users can shop from Instagram by using their own Instagram library, or pictures they have liked on the photo-sharing app. With the surge in popularity of Instagram, but no way to link to products, we’ve provided our audience with a new way to shop for products they love through mobile.

Customers will not wait around if retailers don’t provide a seamless service: indeed, millennials can switch between media platforms at an average of 27 times per hour. Brands need to support this service with social media content.

E-commerce and an integrated social plan can actually help small brands to go big. In fact, retailers such as Shop Direct and Tesco are keener today than ever before to work with startups and small businesses and are even setting up startup incubators to satisfy their hunger for innovation.

Small luxury brands are also catching up fast to enter and leverage the digital marketplace. This can be seen, for example, in the rise of the shoptique trend, which sees small fashion brands effectively compete via e-commerce. Shoptiques allow customers to connect with a selection of products, while helping small resource-strapped brands gain exposure online through a larger platform.

Millennials will continue to lead the way in the e-commerce and mobile space and the shopping app fever is set to spread to every retail area, so it’s time to catch up. With consumers spending 89% of their time on media through mobile apps, it’s no longer something that can be ignored.

Daniela Cecilio is the founder and CEO of fashion discovery app ASAP54